New-Ark Area Emmaus Community

Technical Director’s Manual

Technical Director Responsibilities Overview

Prior to the Team Meetings

During the Team Meetings

During the Walk

Pre-Walk Laptop Setup Checklist

Weekend Duties

Thursday Night

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Other Technical Issues & Troubleshooting

After the Walk

Laptop Cleanup & Documentation Feedback

Gathering after the Walk, Fourth Day Follow-Up, and the Next Candlelight

Reference Information: Song and Talk Template Presentation Files

Song Presentation Files

Talk Template Presentation Files

Reference Information: Graphics Options and Presentation Modes

Laptop Graphics Options

PowerPoint Presentation Modes

Reference Information: Sound and Lighting Systems

The Sanctuary Sound Board

The Sanctuary Audio Equipment

The Sanctuary Lighting Control

The Conference Room Sound System

Technical Director Responsibilities Overview

  1. Prepare walk-ready PowerPoint presentations for each talk prior to their preview at the team meetings. This includesthe marking of slide transitions on the copies of the talks in order to make the presentations seamless.
  1. Run or direct the running of the PowerPoint presentations during talk previews to ensure that the slides correctly reflect and support the talk, and to allow team members an opportunity to get comfortable with the process. Arrange for a PC and display monitor to be used in each preview so that the slides are previewed by all reviewers with each talk.
  1. Become proficient at the setup of (1) PC to display monitor, and (2) PC to projection and sound systems utilizing Technical Director’s Manual instructions.
  1. Become proficient at the operation of the sound system and projector in the Conference Room.
  1. Become proficient at the operation of the sound system and computer/projection systemsin the Sanctuary.
  1. Assist Special Music folks with sound as necessary.
  1. Assist Music Director by creating PowerPoint song sets during the weekend as necessary.

Prior to the Team Meetings

Prior to the first team meeting, the Technical Director needs to do the following:

  • Contact the Communications Chairperson () and provide a reach email address. The Communications Chairperson will set up a team Technical Director email forwarder ( for the Men’s Team; or for the Women’s Team); emails sent to the email forwarder address will be forwarded to the reach email addresses provided by the Technical Directors.
  • Secure two laptop computers to be used during the team meetings for talk previews. The community has 4 laptops available for use by the Men’s and Women’s Walk teams. Contact the Audiovisual Coordinator () to obtain the laptops needed.
  • Secure the hardware required to connect 2 laptops to display monitors for talk previews. The Technical Director will be provided by the Audiovisual Coordinator with one or twoteam cable bags that contain the cables and other hardware components which should be sufficient for the setup of two talk previews.
  • Contact the team members who will be previewing the first week to get copies of their talks: ask that the talks be made available by the weekend prior to the first team meeting.

During the Team Meetings

  • Several days before each team meeting, obtain copies of the talks being previewed that week (electronic versions via email are preferable). For the Thursday evening meetings, it is suggested that the deadline be Sunday or Monday evening prior to the preview; for the Saturday meeting, it is suggested that the deadline be the Tuesday evening prior to the preview.
  • Using the talk template slides as starting points, edit and augment the slides as necessary to fit and support the talks; changes to slides should be made according to the following guidelines:
  • The standard look and feel must be maintained: background, text fonts and point sizes, slide transitions, and slide animations must be kept consistent from slide to slide, and talk to talk.Point sizes should generally be 32 or larger for all text.
  • ONLY THE TOP TWO-THIRDS OF EACH SLIDE may be used for the talk slides; text displayed on the bottom third of a slide cannot be seen by those seated towards the back of the conference room. (NOTE: for song lyric slides, only the TOP HALF of each slide may be used to account for the possibilityof folks standing while singing.)
  • Care must be taken when changing any of the main points of the template to match the speaker’s talk: the speaker may have relied more on a previous talk than the abbreviated outline in preparing their talk, and may have inadvertently omitted or changed points that are in the current talk outline. When in doubt, check the current talk outline (in the Technical Director’s notebook) and/or consult with the speaker, preferably before the talk preview occurs.
  • All repeated points and phrases that the speaker and/or teamwant the pilgrims to write down should be presented on a slide (except for scripture references – scripture references should not be listed on the slides (clergy talks may be an exception)). The team preview of the talk should determine whether a given point or phrase is worthy of repeating; but, once decided by the team that a given point or phrase is to be repeated, the text should be on the slide verbatim to aid the pilgrims in writing it down.
  • If multiple list points are on a slide, the slide animation should ensure that the points do not appear all at the same time, but, rather, each point appears on the screen as it is referenced by the speaker.
  • Blank slides should be inserted when appropriate so that text left on the screen does not become a distraction (e.g. when the speaker is giving testimony or telling a story, etc.). NOTE: A blank slide is one with only the standard slide background displayed; ‘black screen’ slides (solid black background) may be used at the beginning and end of the talk but should not be used within the talk.

NOTE: the outcome of this step should be walk-ready PowerPoint presentations that accurately reflect and support the speakers’ preview talks without being a distraction.

  • Once the preview slides are complete, mark up printed copies of the talks to note slide transitions and mouse clicks.
  • Provide for the preview slides to be loaded onto the preview laptops(e.g. put the talk slides on a flash drive, etc.).
  • Arrive early enough before team meeting to setup the laptops and display monitors for the talk previews; for previews held in the lower level Social Room:
  • obtain the white display system remote and the individual display monitor remotes from the Conference Room Sound closet (the display monitors are numbered 1-4 starting in the northwest corner of the Social Room and proceeding clockwise; the remotes are numbered corresponding to the display monitors)
  • turn on the display system for each display monitor being used (a little red light at right end of the bottom edge of the display monitor will come on); make sure that the display monitors themselves are OFF
  • if not on, press the ‘Power’ button on the connection dock (strip just below the monitor) to turn power on to the dock; push the ‘PC’ button on the dock to switch to that mode
  • use a VGA cable to connect the laptop to the connection dock, and plug the laptop’s power cord into the dock
  • once everything is connected, turn on the laptop and allow it to fully boot
  • finally, use the display monitor remote to turn on the display monitor; once it is on, if it is not showing the laptop’s background image, toggle the mode on the dock from ‘PC’ to something else, and then back to ‘PC’
  • As time permits, obtain a list of songs from the Music Director and create a song set presentation file for the team-singing portion of the team meeting.
  • If there are two Technical Directors assigned to the team, they will run the PowerPoint for both of themeeting’s talk previews; if there is no Assistant Technical Director assigned to the team, the Technical Director will run PowerPoint for one of the talk previews, and will coordinate with an ALD(preferred) or other team member to assist in running the PowerPoint for the second talk preview.
  • Solicit and record comments on the slides prior to the speaker returning to the room.
  • Once the final talk text copy is received, make the final changes to the slides.
  • For clergy talks, if the clergy speaker is giving a talk that they have given previously in our community, check the Clergy Talk archive (on the Technical Director’s team page on the Community website: new-arkemmaus.org/team/wte/td) to see if the talk text file and/or tailored slides were saved for the talk. If so, contact the clergy and determine what changes if any they will be making to their talk (it is helpful to email them the talk text file from the archive as a place to start).
  • When the primary Emmaus Walk weekend laptop becomes available, in preparation for the Walk weekend, all completed(‘walk ready’) PowerPoint presentation files *and* their associated talk text files (e.g. Microsoft Word files, PDF files, etc.) should be placed on the Emmaus laptop in the ‘Current Walk’ folder(s).
  • Ask the Lay Director to provide the contact information for the persons who will be providing Special Music on the weekend. Make arrangements to meet with the persons within the last couple of weeks before the Walk to review the setup and run sound checks with them in the Sanctuary. Take care to record the accompaniment (CD, etc.)volume levels, as well as the microphone levels, as these will be needed when the Special Music is provided on the weekend.

During the Walk

Pre-Walk Laptop Setup Checklist

Before the team is to report to the Sanctuary prior to the start of the walk, the laptop should be setup in the conference room, and, with the optional assistance of the Audiovisual Coordinator, the laptop and projection system checked as follows:

  • Connect the laptop screen output to the connection on the east wall of the conference room (beside the laptop table), using the VGA cable that is in the walk weekend laptop’s bag.
  • Connect the laptop headset output to the microphone jack on the east wall of the conference room (behind the laptop table) using the XLR-XLR microphone cable from the walk weekend laptop’s bag, and the Laptop Sound Port connectorfrom the walk weekend laptop’s bag.
  • Use theUSB-connected mouse from the walk weekend laptop’s bag. This is to reduce the likelihood of stray signals (or a low battery) causing spurious, undesired ‘mouse-clicks’ (which are particularly troublesome when they occur during a presentation).
  • Make sure that the laptopaudio is ‘on’ (not muted), and set to approx. 70% of full volume; make sure that the laptop sounds are turned off: on the Control Panel, select the ‘Sounds and Audio Devices’ icon; select the ‘Sounds’ tab, and set the ‘Sound scheme’ to ‘No Sounds’.
  • The desktop background should be plain black: on the Control Panel, select the ‘Display’ icon; select the ‘Desktop’ tab, and make sure the ‘Background’ is set to ‘None’ and the ‘Color’ is set to black.
  • Check the ‘Current Walk’ folder to ensure all of the talk PowerPoint files are in the folder.
  • Place a shortcut to the appropriate ‘My New Friend’ PowerPoint file (Men’s Walk or Women’s Walk) on the desktop (these files are in the ‘ThursdayPPTandMovie’ folder).
  • Thelaptop graphics option should be set to ‘Extended desktop.’Open a PowerPoint presentation file and verify thatPowerPoint is setup to use the ‘Presenter View’ mode. (See the Technical Director’s Manual – Reference Information “Graphics Options and Presentation Modes” for details.)
  • Using the projector remote, ensure that the projector can be powered on and that the laptop screen can be projected onto the conference room screen; NOTE:the projector should be powered off whenever it will be idle for a long period of time (e.g. mealtimes, break times, etc.; this will help prevent overheating and prolong the bulb life).
  • Check the projector settings using the ‘Holy Spirit, Thou Art Welcome’ song slides, or one of the talk files in the ‘Current Walk’ folder (pick one that has text extending to the edge of the screen). Adjust the focus manually (twist the projector lens), and adjust the projection size and shape (‘keystoning’) via the projector menu (software) interface (use remote).
  • Using the shortcut to ‘My New Friend’ on the desktop, start the presentation and advance to the slide that automatically starts the movie (4th slide). Make sure that the movie looks correct on the projection screen, and that the sound level is adequate (see the Weekend Duties – Thursday Night for detailed instructions on running the movie).
  • Verify that the laptop has internet access. If not, check the network connection: the laptop should be connected to the First United Methodist Public network (password welcome!).
  • Before leaving the conference room, restart the ‘My New Friend’ presentation, leaving it on the first ‘blank’ (black) screen, and power off the projector.

Weekend Duties

The Technical Director will receive from the Lay Director a detailed walk duties timeline for the weekend which should be reviewed prior to the walk, and referenced throughout the weekend. For the most part, the activities of the Technical Director are a repetition of: (1) prepare to run a song set and/or talk presentation; and (2) run the song set / talk presentation.See the Technical Director’s Manual – Reference Information “Song and Talk Template Presentation Files” for details on preparing and running the song set and talk presentation PowerPoint files.

The other primary responsibility of the Technical Director on the weekend is running the sound systems in the conference room and in the Sanctuary. See the Technical Director’s Manual – Reference Information “Sound and Lighting Systems” for details on the sound systems.

The remainder of this section will highlight someof the additional or specific duties that the Technical Director must be aware of and be prepared to perform.

Thursday Night

My New Friend

Turn on the projector, and start the “My New Friend” show (if not already running), leaving it on the first ‘blank’ (black) screen. Wait for the cue from the Assistant Lay Director then display the “My New Friend” slide; leave displayed for the entire “My New Friend” activity. At the end of the activity, advance the slide to the next ‘blank’ (black) slide, and wait for the cue to start the movie.

“The Way of Pilgrimage” Movie

When it is time to start the movie, click to advance to the next ‘blank’ (black) slide which will automatically start the movie.After the movie ends, exit the presentation.

Friday

PowerPoint Presenter View

Before the first talk, verify thatPowerPoint is setup to utilize the ‘Presenter View’ for the talk presentations.

Dying Moments, Cross Ceremony, and Closing Communion Song Sets

As time permits on Friday, create the song sets for Dying Moments communion, the Cross Ceremony, and the Closing communion using song lists provided by the Music Director. (If possible, creation of these song sets should be done before the walk starts.)Once completed, they may be loaded onto the Sanctuary computer sometime during a break.

Saturday

Dying Moments

If not already done, the Dying Moments Communion song set must be loaded on the Sanctuary computer(and the computer and projectors turned on) prior to the group’s moving to the Sanctuary. The Music Director and the Technical Director must be the first two to participate in the Dying Moments communion so that the Technical Director can run the communion song set presentation.

Poster Party ‘Scoring’

As the tables present their skits/songs/posters/etc., participate in the ‘scoring’ by the Table of Arrears, using PowerPoint slides, if desired.

Sunday

Cross Ceremony

If not already done, the Cross Ceremony and Closing Communion song sets must be loaded on the Sanctuary computer (and the computer and projectors turned on) prior to the group’s moving to the Sanctuary. When running the Cross Ceremony song set, be prepared to jump to the ‘Amazing Grace’ slides at the signal from the Music Director.

Other Technical Issues & Troubleshooting

Projector Problems

If the projector fails to turn on or something happens to the bulb, have an ALD contact the Logistics Day Captain on duty to install the spare projector (typically stored in the Sanctuary sound closet).